Sheet material dispenser

ABSTRACT

The invention relates to a sheet material dispenser with at least two compartments ( 37 ) for accommodating sheet material, in particular in the form of brochures. The compartments are formed using staggered module components which are arranged one behind the other. The module components can be joined together through a movement directed initially perpendicular and then parallel to the rear wall ( 4 ) of the compartments and can be released again. In order to be able to manufacture the sheet material dispenser with a low expense of material, according to the invention the module components are formed from trays ( 1 ), which consist of a rear wall ( 4 ), two side walls ( 5, 6 ) and an end wall ( 7 ) forming their lower end. Furthermore each tray ( 1 ) has in the region of the edges of its two side walls ( 5, 6 ) facing away from its rear wall ( 4 ) in each case at least one protrusion ( 9 ) directed towards the tray interior. Additionally, on the rear side of the rear wall of each tray at least two mountings ( 12 ) are provided which accept the protrusions of a further tray ( 1   b ) which can be joined to the tray ( 1   a ) and a limit stop ( 31 ) is present for limiting the movement, directed parallel to the rear wall, of the trays ( 1 ) which can be respectively joined together.

The invention relates to a sheet material dispenser, with at least twocompartments for the accommodation of sheet material, in particular inthe form of brochures, in which the compartments are formed using modulecomponents for accommodating sheets staggered with respect to oneanother and arranged one behind the other, which can be joined by amovement directed initially perpendicular and then parallel to the rearwall of the compartments and which can be released again.

A sheet material dispenser of the above type is known, the modulecomponents of which provide accommodation for sheet material and have arear wall and a front wall which are joined together by two side wallsand an end wall. With the known sheet material dispenser the rear wallsand the front walls of the module components are provided with means bywhich module components can be joined together. The use of module parts,which have front walls, with the described sheet material dispensermeans that the material expense for its manufacture is comparativelylarge.

The object of the invention is to provide a sheet material dispenserwhich can be manufactured with little material expense. This object issolved according to the invention in that the module components used foraccommodating the sheets are formed from trays, which consist of a rearwall, two side walls and an end wall forming their lower end, that eachtray has in each case at least one protrusion directed to the trayinterior in the region of the edges of both of its side walls facingaway from its rear wall, that on the rear side of the rear wall of eachtray at least two mountings are provided for the accommodation of theprotrusions of a further tray which can be joined to the tray and that alimit stop is present for limiting the movement, directed parallel tothe rear wall, of the trays which can in each case be joined together.

The sheet material dispenser according to the invention offers theadvantage that due to the use of tray-shaped module components, i.e.with no front walls or front wall sections, the material expense for themanufacture of the module components is low. For a sheet materialdispenser with for example four compartments it is sufficient to providethe front module component with a front wall, which is preferably formedby a front plate which has guide grooves that are movable over theprotrusions of the respective front tray.

It has been found to be practicable if each side wall of the trays isprovided in each case with at least two protrusions which are spacedfrom one another and point to the tray interior. Even just through theuse of two pairs of protrusions and in each case a mounting assigned toa pair of protrusions, the offset between the staggered trays can bechanged by an amount corresponding to the distance between the twoprotrusions arranged on a side wall.

The same result can be obtained if each side wall only has oneprotrusion to which, in each case, two mountings, spaced from oneanother, are assigned on the rear side of the rear wall.

In practice it is recommended for production and stability reasons thateach side wall is provided with more than three protrusions and also therear sides of the rear walls are fitted with a plurality of mountings,wherein the number of the mountings assigned to a row of protrusionsdoes not necessarily have to be equal to the number of protrusions.

The spacing between the protrusions of the respective side wall and themountings assigned to these protrusions is practically equally large.

The rear sides of the rear walls of the trays are provided with parallelguides in the vicinity of the side walls, of which the guides of therespectively rearmost tray can be used for the accommodation ofcomponents which facilitate setting up or hanging up the sheet materialdispenser.

The use of module components in the form of trays with which front wallsections are omitted, supplies the prerequisite for combining modulecomponents with different filling volumes in order to accommodatevarious formats of sheet material in the sheet material dispenser. Therespective tray can be divided into two or more subtrays by namelyequipping the rear wall of one, several or all trays with longitudinalslots for mounting a partition wall having hooks which can be insertedinto the slots.

If the partition wall is equipped with protrusions directed towards theside walls of the respective tray, then with the simultaneous use of theprotrusions of the sidewalls, the connection of additional traysfacilitating the accommodation of sheet material of other formats ispossible, which similarly consist of a rear wall, two side walls and anend wall forming its lower end and the width of which essentiallycorresponds to the spacing between the partition wall and the respectiveside wall facing it.

Further features and details of the invention can be taken from thedependent claims and the following description of an embodiment of theinvention illustrated in the enclosed drawing. The following are shown:

FIG. 1 a perspective view of a sheet material dispenser with two traysand an additional tray,

FIG. 2 the perspective front view of a tray,

FIG. 3 the perspective rear view of the tray according to FIG. 2,

FIG. 4 the insertion of a component for setting up a sheet materialdispenser on a table or similar object,

FIG. 5 the insertion of the component illustrated in FIG. 4 for the casewhere suspension of the sheet material dispenser on a wall is desired,

FIG. 6 the insertion of a partition wall in a tray,

FIG. 7 the perspective front view of an additional tray,

FIG. 8 the rear view of the additional tray according to FIG. 7,

FIG. 9 an illustration corresponding to FIG. 4 for the case of a sheetmaterial dispenser of additional trays,

FIG. 10 an illustration corresponding to FIG. 5 for the case of a sheetmaterial dispenser of additional trays,

FIG. 11 the perspective view of fragments of two additional trays beingjoined together,

FIG. 12 the front view of a front plate,

FIG. 13 the rear view of the front plate according to FIG. 12,

FIG. 14-17 the configuration of a sheet material dispenser and

FIG. 18 a section through the sheet material dispenser according to FIG.17.

In FIG. 1, designated with 1 a and 1 b, two trays are arrangedstaggered, of which the front tray 1 a is divided by a partition wall 2into two parts each forming one compartment for a smaller sheet format.The right side of the sheet material dispenser is also provided with atray, which is similarly intended for the accommodation of sheetmaterial of a smaller format and is designated as the additional tray 3in the following to differentiate it from the larger tray 1. Details ofthe construction of the trays 1 can be taken from FIGS. 2 and 3, ofwhich FIG. 2 shows the front side and FIG. 3 the rear side of a tray 1.Each tray 1 has a rear wall 4, two side walls 5 and 6 as well as an endwall 7. In the centre of the trays 1 there are longitudinal slots 8 foraccepting a partition wall 2. The side walls 5 and 6 of the trays 1 arein the region of their edges facing away from the rear wall 4 providedwith lug-shaped protrusions 9 which protrude into the interior of thetray 1. 10 and 11 are holes, which facilitate a direct mounting of thetray 1 on a wall.

On the rear side of its rear wall the tray 1 has receptacle-shapedmountings 12, which accommodate the protrusions 9.

The rear wall 4 is also provided with guides 13, which are formed fromL-shaped protrusions arranged in pairs. For reasons of injectionmoulding, in the region of the guides 13 there are recesses 14 in therear wall 4. As illustrated in FIGS. 4 and 5, the guides 13 are used toaccommodate components 15, with the aid of which the sheet materialdispenser can be set up on a table or other support or also hung in asloping position on a wall. The components 15 have two side walls 16, 17arranged spaced from one another in the form of right-angled triangles,which are joined together in the region of the limbs of the triangles bytransverse walls 18, 19 and which in the region of the hypotenuse of thetriangle are provided with guide strips 20, 21, which can be pushed intothe guides 13. Limit stops 22 on the rear side of the rear wall 4together with the counter stops 23, 24 on the components 15 limit theirinsertion path. The arrangement of the components 15 in the vicinity ofthe side walls 5, 6 of the respective rearmost tray 1 increases theresistance of the set-up sheet material dispenser to tilting.Immediately below the limit stops 22 there are latching dips 25, whichhold the components 15 in the inserted position. To facilitate thesloping suspension of the sheet material dispenser, the transverse wall18 is provided with holes 26.

Details of the partition wall 2 and fitting it to the rear wall 4 of thetray 1 a in FIG. 1 can be taken from FIG. 6. As can be seen, thepartition wall 2 is provided at its lower edge with hooks 27 which canbe inserted into the longitudinal slots 8. In the inserted state a dip28 locks into a recess 29 in the end wall 7. On the edge facing awayfrom the hooks 27 the partition wall 2 has lug-shaped protrusions 9,which together with the protrusions 9 on the side walls 5, 6 facilitatethe connection of the additional tray 3 having a reduced filling volumefor the acceptance of sheet material with a smaller format. The width ofthe additional trays 3 is in the illustrated case equal to half thewidth of the tray 1. If the rear wall 4 is provided with several rows oflongitudinal slots 8, then with appropriately adapted additional traysother divisions can also be realised.

As can be seen from FIGS. 7 and 8, the construction of the additionaltrays 3 essentially corresponds to the construction of the tray 1. Forparts corresponding to one another, the same reference numerals aretherefore used. Due to the smaller dimensions of the additional trays 3the number of protrusions 9, of mountings 12 and guides 13 of theadditional trays 3 can be less than in the case of the trays 1. Thedimensions of the above mentioned parts and their spacing to one anotherhowever match the dimensions of the corresponding parts of the trays 1and their spacing to one another.

Based on the identical basic construction of the trays 1 and theadditional trays 3, it is possible to configure a sheet materialdispenser which only consists of additional trays 3. In a case of thisnature it is recommended however that the component 15 illustrated inFIGS. 4 and 5 is replaced by a component 30 which has similarly reduceddimensions and which is provided with only a single hole 26.

As can be seen best in FIG. 11, the mountings 12 are open at their outersides and their ends facing the end wall 7, whereas the ends facing awayfrom the end wall 7 are closed and form the limit stops 31 which limitthe insertion movement of the protrusions. Through a longitudinal lug32, which practically extends over the complete height of the trays 1 orof the additional trays 3, the mountings 12 are similarly closed ontheir internal side. In other words, they form open pocket-likereceptacles on two sides. To prevent the longitudinal lugs 32 fromhitting the end wall 7 when fitting the trays 1 and the additional trays3 together, the latter are provided with recesses 33.

Of course, each of the front trays 1 or additional trays 3 must beprovided with a cover formed from a front plate 34 on their front side.As can be seen from FIGS. 12 and 13, the front plate 34 is provided withgrooves 35 in the region of its side edges and at its lower edge with atransverse strip 36 which forms a limit stop, which contacts the innerside of the end wall 7 with the sheet material dispenser in theassembled state.

The assembly of a sheet material dispenser having two compartments 37formed from two trays 1 is explained in the following based on FIGS. 14to 17. FIG. 14 illustrates the front view of the two trays 1 and a frontplate 34 as well as the sectioning line X-X of the sections illustratedin FIGS. 15 to 17. In the course of the assembly of the parts—asindicated by the arrow sequence 38—first the front plate 34 is pushedfrom above over the protrusions 9 of the front tray 1 until itstransverse strip 36 (cf. FIGS. 12 and 13) contacts the inner side of theend wall 7. Then the front tray 1 is moved perpendicularly to the rearwall 4 of the rear tray 1 in the direction of the arrow 39 until thetrays 1 take up the position illustrated in FIG. 16 in which themountings 12 are flush with the protrusions 9. Now the front tray 1 ispushed in the direction of the arrow 40 parallel to the rear wall 4 ofthe rear tray 1 until the position illustrated in FIG. 17 is reached.FIG. 18 illustrates a section along the line Y-Y in FIG. 17 through theassembled parts.

1. Sheet material dispenser, with at least two compartments (37) foraccommodating sheet material, in particular in the form of brochures,with which the compartments (37) are formed by using staggered modulecomponents arranged one behind the other for accommodating sheetmaterial, which can be joined together by a movement which is directedinitially perpendicular and then parallel to the rear wall (4) of thecompartments (37) and which can be released again, characterised in thatthe module components providing accommodation for the sheet material areformed by trays (1) which consist of a rear wall (4), two side walls (5,6) and an end wall (7) forming their lower end, that each tray (1) inthe region of the edges of both of its side walls (5, 6) facing awayfrom the rear wall (4) respectively has at least one protrusion (9)directed towards the tray interior, that on the rear side of the rearwall (4) of each tray at least two mountings (12) for accepting theprotrusions (9) of a further tray (1 b) which can be joined to the tray(1 a) are provided and that a limit stop (31) is provided for limitingthe movement, directed parallel to the rear wall, of the respectivetrays (1) which can be joined together.
 2. Sheet material dispenseraccording to claim 1, characterised in that at least one tray (1) isprovided with longitudinal slots (8) in the region of its rear wall (4)for attaching a partition wall (2), which has hooks (27) that can beinserted into the longitudinal slots (8), and by means of which the tray(1 a) can be divided into two parts.
 3. Sheet material dispenseraccording to claim 2, characterised in that the lower end of thepartition wall (2) has a clip (28), which with the partition wall (2)inserted into the longitudinal slots (8) engages a recess (29) in theend wall (7) of the tray (1 a) joined to the partition wall (2). 4.Sheet material dispenser according to claim 2, characterised in that thepartition wall (2) has protrusions (9) directed to the side walls (5, 6)of the tray (1), which together with the protrusions (9) of the sidewalls (5, 6) facilitate the connection of additional trays (3) having areduced filling volume, which also consist of a rear wall (4), two sidewalls (5, 6) and an end wall (7) forming their lower end and the widthof which essentially corresponds to the spacing between the partitionwall (2) and the respective side wall (5 or 6) facing it.
 5. Sheetmaterial dispenser according to claim 4, characterised in that also theadditional trays (3) having a reduced-filling volume are provided withmountings (12) on the rear side of their rear wall (4), which each havea limit stop (31) for limiting the movement, directed parallel to therear wall, of the additional trays (3) respectively joined together. 6.Sheet material dispenser according to claim 1, characterised in thateach side wall (5, 6) of the trays (1) and additional trays (3) isprovided with at least two protrusions (9), arranged spaced from oneanother and directed to the tray interior.
 7. Sheet material dispenseraccording to claim 1, characterised in that each side wall (5, 6) of thetrays (1) and additional trays (3) is provided with more than threeprotrusions (9), arranged spaced from one another and directed to thetray interior.
 8. Sheet material dispenser according to claim 1,characterised in that in the region of the margins of the rear side ofthe rear wall (4) of the trays (1) and additional trays (3) at least twomountings (12) are respectively arranged.
 9. Sheet material dispenseraccording to claim 1, characterised in that on the rear side of the rearwall (4) of the trays (1) and additional trays (3) more than threemountings (12) are respectively, arranged.
 10. Sheet material dispenseraccording to claim 6, characterised in that the spacing between theprotrusions (9) of the trays (1) or additional trays (3) is equal to thespacing between the mountings (12) of the trays (1) or additional trays(3).
 11. Sheet material dispenser according to claim 1, characterised inthat the protrusions (9) are formed lug-shaped.
 12. Sheet materialdispenser according to claim 1, characterised in that the mountings (12)consist of receptacles which are open at their outer sides and at theirlower end.
 13. Sheet material dispenser according to claim 1,characterised in that it has at least one front plate (34) with guidegrooves (35) which can be pushed over the protrusions (9) of therespective front tray or additional tray (1 or 3).
 14. Sheet materialdispenser according to claim 13, characterised in that the front plate(34) is fitted with a limit stop (36) which can be brought into contactwith the end wall (7) of the tray (1) or additional tray (3) to which itis joined.
 15. Sheet material dispenser according to claim 12,characterised in that the rear sides of the rear walls (4) of the trays(1) or additional trays (3) in the vicinity of the side walls (5, 6) ofthe trays (1) or additional trays (3) are provided with parallel guides(13) for setting up or suspending the respective components (15, 30)acting as the rearmost tray (1) or additional tray (3).
 16. Sheetmaterial dispenser according to claim 15, characterised in that theguides (13) are formed L-shaped.
 17. Sheet material dispenser accordingto claim 15, characterised in that the components (15, 30) have two sidewalls (16, 17) in the shape of a right-angled triangle, spaced from oneanother, which in the region of the limbs of the triangle are connectedtogether by transverse walls (18, 19) and which have guide strips (20,21) in the region of the hypotenuse of the triangle.
 18. Sheet materialdispenser according to claim 3, characterised in that the partition wall(2) has protrusions (9) directed to the side walls (5, 6) of the tray(1), which together with the protrusions (9) of the side walls (5, 6)facilitate the connection of additional trays (3) having a reducedfilling volume, which also consist of a rear wall (4), two side walls(5, 6) and an end wall (7) forming their lower end and the width ofwhich essentially corresponds to the spacing between the partition wall(2) and the respective side wall (5 or 6) facing it.
 19. Sheet materialdispenser according to claim 7, characterised in that the spacingbetween the protrusions (9) of the trays (1) or additional trays (3) isequal to the spacing between the mountings (12) of the trays (1) oradditional trays (3).
 20. Sheet material dispenser according to claim16, characterised in that the components (15, 30) have two side walls(16, 17) in the shape of a right-angled triangle, spaced from oneanother, which in the region of the limbs of the triangle are connectedtogether by transverse walls (18, 19) and which have guide strips (20,21) in the region of the hypotenuse of the triangle.